Phoenix gaining on Philly in city size

May 18, 2004

Monday may have marked Philadelphia's last day as the nation's fifth largest city--at least according to one demographer.

University of Pennsylvania professor Janice Fanning Madden has Phoenix poised to take Philadelphia's spot in the top five. Madden said she came to her projection by looking at growth numbers in the two cities over the past three decades. But Philly still has some time: The next full population count in both cities won't happen until the next U.S. Census in 2010.

CLIMBER DIES: Hours after a dramatic helicopter rescue Monday from the slopes of Washington's Mt. Rainier, climber Peter Cooley, 39, died from head injuries sustained in a fall days earlier on the mountain. He and a companion had been stranded near the summit since Saturday. It is the first climbing death on the mountain this year.

EX-GOVERNOR RELEASED: Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, 64, was released from jail in Sioux Falls on Monday after serving 100 days for an accident that killed a motorcyclist and ended Janklow's career in Congress.

DISABILITIES RULING: Disabled people can sue if states ignore a landmark civil rights law that protects their rights, a divided Supreme Court ruled Monday in the case of a paraplegic man who crawled up the steps of a small-town courthouse because there was no elevator for his wheelchair.

TEEN ARRESTED IN SLAYING: A

14-year-old boy was arrested in the shotgun slaying of an 11-year-old cousin whose body was found in an apartment-house trash bin, Los Angeles police said Monday. Bryan Lockley's body was found Saturday.

FATAL JET COLLISION: Two F-16 fighter jets collided Monday over rural Indiana during training, killing one of the pilots, the Air National Guard said. The other pilot parachuted to safety. The names of the pilots were not immediately released. The fighter jets were from Terre Haute, Ind.